This man is a real artist--pianist.

Rating: 10/10 (10 March 2005)

He's a man so brave, that he can play the imaginary piano when exploded with the ship he was born, lived and died in. Yet he's a man so scared, that he cannot face the infinite city life we are living everyday. He's a man so intelligent, that he can play the piano as if he has four arms (or I'd rather say, he has God's arms). Yet he's a man so stupid, that he chose to gone with the wind while he's other choice could be marrying a beautiful woman and having a child. He's a man so perceptive, that he could use his music language to describe exactly others' feelings. Yet he's a man so insensitive that he'd rather disappear after a gentle kiss on his beloved while she's asleep than unburden himself and tell her "ILU".
But one thing is for sure: this man is a real artist--pianist. Only a man like him can dance with the piano in a terrifying storm. Only a man like him can give up the first two bouts of a duel, and beat the competitor entirely, convincingly, potently in the last bout. Only a man like him... can have such a beautiful story to tell...
This man is Danny Boodmann T.D. Lemon Nineteen Hundred, who is also known as simply "1900". A man never existed. He has never set foot on land in his entire life. No ID. No passport. No Visa. No parents. No birthday. Nothing in the world belongs to him except his music.
So he played. For the first class guests. For the third class members. For the girl at the window. For the darkness of the night. For the heartbeat of his own. For the sea-- his eternal home.
He had once wanted to get off the ship. To meet his girl and to hear the voice of the sea, as he always wanted to. He hugged friends goodbye and waved and went down. But his pace became slower and slower, and finally stopped. As he described at the end of the movie:
"Nineteen Hundred: All that city. You just couldn't see the end to it. The end? Please? You please just show me where it ends? It was all very fine on that gangway. And I was grand too, in my overcoat. I cut quite a figure. And I was getting off. Guaranteed. There was no problem. It wasn't what I saw that stopped me, Max. It was what I didn't see. You understand that? What I didn't see. In all that sprawling city there was everything except an end. There was no end. What I did not see was where the whole thing came to an end. The end of the world... Take a piano. The keys begin, the keys end. You know there are eighty-eight of them, nobody can tell you any different. They are not infinite. You are infinite. And on these keys the music that you can make is infinite. I like that. That I can live by. You get me up on that gangway and you're rolling out in front of me a keyboard of millions of keys, millions and billions of keys that never end, and that's the truth, Max. That they never end. That keyboard is infinite. And if that keyboard is infinite, then on that keyboard there is no music you can play. You're sitting on the wrong bench. That's God's piano. Christ! Did, did you see the streets? Just the streets?There were thousands of them! And how do you do it down there? How do you choose just one? One woman, one house, one piece of land to call your own, one landscape to look at, one way to die... All that world is weighing down on me, you don't even know where it comes to an end, and aren't you ever just scared of breaking apart at the thought of it? The enormity of living it? I was born on this ship, and the world passed me by, but two thousand people at a time. And there were wishes here, but never more than fit between prow and stern. You played out your happiness, but on a piano that was not infinite. I learned to live that way. Land? Land is a ship too big for me. It's a woman too beautiful; it's a voyage too long, a perfume too strong. It's a music I don't know how to make. I could never get off this ship. At best, I can step off my life. After all, I don't exist for anyone. You're an exception, Max, you're the only one who knows I'm here. You're a minority, and you better get used to it. Forgive me, my friend, but I'm not getting off."
He didn't get off. That's what he said and he did. As I mentioned above, he died with the ship, in the explosion. I believe at this point of the movie, no body can hold their tears back.
By the way, this movie is Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, who is also the director of Nuovo cinema Paradiso and Malèna. Some people say the legend of 1900 is the director's compromise to Hollywood-style-commercial movie. Well, I know nothing about this kind... It's a excellent movie. Much I could say.